Company

AdvaFab (former Advacam Oy) is the leading semiconductor solution provider of high-quality pixel detector module products and radiation sensor manufacturing and semiconductor integration services. Company’s business model is to provide a turn-key solution for its customers in the industrial and academic imaging or spectroscopic markets.

AdvaFab is a technology spin-off company from VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. The company was founded in 2012 by Juha Kalliopuska (CEO) and Sami Vahanen (CTO, Chairman) to solve the liability issue in complex supply chain for producing pixel sensor modules. The company has been organically grown without external investments besides public funding within EU.

AdvaFab has its headquarter in Jätkäsaari, Helsinki where it also has the backend clean room production facility for flip chip bonding and electrical testing. The wafer-level processing (i.e., sensor fabrication and wafer bumping) is done at Micronova facility in Otaniemi, Espoo.

The team consists of highly educated experts. There are 6 people with doctors’ degree and 4 people with graduate degrees in a team of 20 people. We are a group of experts working in fabrication and packing of radiation sensors and we master all the sub-steps of the process.

Advafab’s vision is to be an independent, globally well recognized and trusted high-quality pixel sensor module producer. The company wants to fabricate the most advanced pixel detector modules in the word. The goal is to attract new OEM customers that work with pixel detectors and build industrial partnerships with them.

Advafab holds an ISO 9001:2015 quality system certificate for designing and manufacturing of sensors used for radiation detection. The company will continue to further develop the quality system to improve its operations and products to overcome customers’ expectations. The development activities are focused on further development of the ERP system and digitalisation of data.

Advafab’s quality policy:

1. Advafab’s strategy, values, ethical principles (code of conduct) and customer care are the driving forces of the company. These are the cornerstones of the quality policy at Advafab. The quality policy supports the strategy of the company, and it will be reviewed by the board of directors.

2. Purpose of the quality policy:
With the quality policy we show our serious approach towards quality and describe our principles towards our staff and stakeholders.

Our quality thinking is based on managing the necessary quality procedures in all the services that are provided to our customers, the quality of operation is based on company operations that add value to the company and does not jeopardize the company’s overall operations without a clear mitigation plan if the risks activate, by:
1. Understanding the customer’s requirements
2. Designing suitable products together with the customer
3. Performing fabrication services and quality control steps throughout the processes
4. Stay on the promised schedule by being agile and competitive. (Work time allocations need to be discussed so as not to miss the delivery windows.)

The good technical dialogue with our customers is an asset that we want to maintain throughout the individual projects. We are growing with our customers, and we are committed to improvement:

1. We must be proactive and continuously develop our processes and QMS to be compatible with our operations.

2. Our goal is to steer our activities by following quality principles and to continuously improve our operation, not forgetting working safety related matters and other regulations given by the authorities.

3. Definition of the quality
Quality means that provided services will follow our internal processes and also meet the customer’s expectations. A good customer experience is created when there’s a product/service that meets or exceeds customer’s expectation technologically in a cost-effective manner and the customer is satisfied, reorders and expands business with us. The basis of the good service is to provide technological support and consultancy to the customer to realize the commonly designed service/product that wouldn’t otherwise be available for the customer.

Internal and external processes are monitored to steer the company and to enable continual development.

Quality people make quality organizations, and that’s why our business is based on experts and motivated personnel. Quality always starts from the people; the employees and management must be in sync and work in harmony with high ethics and engagement both to the company and to the customers.

4. Quality culture
By quality culture, we mean that every Advafab employee has the right and obligation to raise any quality issues and occupational safety concerns and discuss them with his/her supervisor provided that working conditions do not meet the pre-defined quality criteria of the product/services or safety of the employees. If necessary, all the employees can stop their work if they observe risks at the process lines or in the clean room facility.

The prerequisites for high quality are professionally proud quality culture and well-functioning, constantly up-to-date and evolving processes in the company.

In case of non-conformities or defects in relation to the product, delivery or service or any other part of the company operations, like decrease of motivation or working atmosphere, we will strive to solve the problem quickly, efficiently and professionally.

5. Working safety
We pay attention to the risk in the working environment, and they’ll be reported to the safety delegate and the matter will be further discussed within the local management. We educate our colleagues about the safety-related matters in the clean room environment to distribute the information efficiently within the team to avoid accidents.

6. Legislative and regulatory conformance
We obey the rules given in the RoHS directive; we recycle the toxic waste chemicals in an appropriate manner. Advafab is yet using materials that are considered toxic in the detector modules (SnPb solder and Cd(Zn)Te sensors), but there are exemptions for using these materials in pixel detectors. We follow the development of RoHs directive annually.

7. Partners
Our targets for high quality and ethically sustainable operations also apply to our partners and subcontractors.

We are developing our partnership network through an active supplier selection and feedback process. Together, we provide our customers with better products, solutions and services.

8. Improvement of quality management system
Making the Quality Policy an integral aspect of our practical, everyday work is the continual challenge of quality management. We monitor and measure the quality of our operations, and we are committed to continual improvement.

We will provide added value to our customers with our products/services and ensure their functionality from the point of view of design, manufacturing and sourcing.